Tête-à-Tête-Tête

The concert in Charleston was certainly a show to behold.

The Charleston Post and Courier has posted up a few pictures of the event. It was a world of fun and there is something refreshing about standing in a crowd of folks most of whom are half your age.

The truly magic moment happened the day before the concert. My son-in-law is a Dave Matthews freak. He and my daughter actually have a Dave Matthews room in their house. They have seen Dave Matthews countless times and in 7 different states. Needless to say the cherry on top of life according to my son-in-law would be an opportunity to meet Dave Matthews.

Well it happened and I was there and a part of it.

The four of us (me, my wife, my daughter and my son-in-law) were strolling through Charleston just killing time and we went into a mall area that was attached to the hotel where the band was staying. Of course my wife and daughter ducked into the first shop they came to while me and Andy decided to just walk around in the place and window shop. I look up and lo and behold who is it that is strolling right in our direction? It is Dave friggin’ Matthews. All alone. Just walking around doing the same thing we were doing.

I saw him first. He smiled and gave me a nod. I am sure that he had no idea that I knew who he was. Andy was walking about 10 feet behind me so Dave walked between the two of us. I turned and looked at Andy at about the time he saw Dave. And then it became one of those moments where shit seems to start going in slow motion.

Andy says, “Hey Dave. Can I have my picture made with you?” Dave just calmly smiled and said “Sure man.” Andy starts scrambling to get his camera phone set up to take the photo. He hands me the camera and tells me to take the picture. Well in all of the excitement he has the camera on full zoom so I can’t get both of them in the shot. I am standing there saying “Ya’ll gotta get closer or something! I can’t get you both in the shot!” Dave kinda grins and says, “You got it on zoom man. You gotta take it off of zoom.” Of course I have no idea how to do that so Andy takes it and fixes it and I get the shot. We both shake his hand and tell him that we are looking forward to the show. He assures us that we are all going to have a lot of fun and says something like “see you there” and starts meandering back from where he came.

I was very shocked by the spirit of Dave Matthews. He seemed to be more amused than we were about the whole thing. He never stopped smiling and never acted like we were bothering him. He was the complete opposite of what I had assumed a guy as famous and talented as he is would be.

It made the trip. Jeff and Cory Boyd got nuthin’ on us!

The kids went to see Dave perform again last night in Atlanta. Andy gave me a call and held the phone up so I could hear Dave perform the Pink Floyd song “Money” towards the end of the show. Andy will go and see him again in August in Kentucky.

But in all probability he will never, ever get another opportunity to meet the guy. I was so glad that I was there to be a part of it. You can’t beat serendipity.